Already into its first sequel and third anime adaptation Naruto is one of many franchises that will likely never go away. Take a look at the Naruto Movies in Order here if you’re a fan of the series and want to watch it in chronological order! ​Based on the original manga that began in 1999 by mangaka Masashi Kishimoto the series has spanned millions of dollars in revenue across a multitude of media including video games, merchandise, and spin-offs. ith Funimation picking up the rights for streaming and a potential re-release run on home media everyone’s favorite demon fox in an orange jumpsuit will be around for years to come.

Naruto is a 2002 shounen anime series, it is produced by Studio Pierrot and licensed by Viz Media (home video & streaming) and Funimation (streaming). It is currently available on Hulu, Viz.com, Crunchyroll, and Funimation Now for streaming as well as home media.

Editor’s Note: This review may contain near complete to complete spoilers for the 2002-2007 Naruto anime adaptation and some spoilers for future franchise developments.

As stated above in what may seem like a total “what the hell?” moment in the anime licensing industry Naruto is now licensed by Funimation. Of this writing it’s currently a co-ownership of streaming rights between Funimation and original owner Viz Media, but many have already begun speculating that this could be leading to a remastered re-release on Blu-Ray under Funimation’s banner citing the Crunchyroll & Aniplex deals as an indication. With anime seemingly coming together from all the American publishers now’s the perfect time to do a re-watch of classics like Naruto and if a Blu-Ray remaster under Funimation is indeed on the way it’ll only get easier from here.

THE GOOD: The original Naruto is about the loner kid who everybody looked down on training to become a great ninja that would one day not only be a hero to his people and the world over, but also live out his dream as Hokage of Konoha Village. On his journey Naruto faces off against ninja twice his own current skillset like Neiji & Rock Lee as well as fellow jinchuriki/tailed-beast like Gaara or the sand in the chunin exams. The main goal Naruto faces in the original series is learning how to control his tailed-beast Kurama the nine-tailed fox. It consistently seeks & gains control of his body throughout the series often interfering mid-battle giving Naruto an unimaginable amount of power for his age and then-level as a ninja. In addition to all of this Naruto has a budding rivalry with best friend Sasuke Uchiha (who goes on to be his watchful shadow as Hokage) and the dangerous Akatsuki who are trying to capture him and the other jinchuriki to contend with. 

Unlike most long-form shounen anime where focus and character growth & development is limited to one to three characters Naruto features several characters gaining huge amounts of development throughout it’s many key arcs. The Sasuke Retrieval arc and the Chunin Exams arc are two that are most notable for multi-growth characters. Closer to the end of the story we’re introduced to Jiraiya a master ninja who teaches Naruto the Rasengan a technique that his father (the late fourth Hokage) also knew. Jiraiya was also apart of a team of ninja that included Tsunade that at the time was picked as a temporary replacement for the passing third Hokage who died sacrificing his life for the Hidden Leaf during a coup attempt. And Orochimaru who had been responsible for the coup becoming an enemy of the Hidden Leaf years prior. Sasuke defects from the Hidden Leaf and Naruto and some of his friends fail to bring him back leading to Naruto training with Jiraiya for three years while Sasuke trains with Orochimaru who is planning on turning Sasuke into his new vessel.

THE BAD: Like with most long-form anime adaptations Naruto isn’t the most perfect of adapted works. It’s certainly a strong candidate for one of Studio Pierrot’s best work as an animation studio. That being said it has a ton of filler, probably only rivaled by that of Bleach in total filler content length. Though I’ve always said that of the anime adaptations I’ve seen, Naruto has some rather enjoyable filler arcs compared to most. Which often tend to drag on or just seem like rehashes of canonical material. There’s also some toilet human in Naruto which is thankfully removed from the series as it ages. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Naruto has inspired another of present day popular works including My Hero Academia and the series itself continues to thrive and inspire new artists and creators. It also is experiencing it’s own continued growth with it’s sequel Boruto which focuses on Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga’s son of the same name. As the series seems to reach no end in popularity it can only improve even further with time. Recently series creator Kishimoto joined the Boruto staff for future story development meaning Boruto’s quality as well as the Naruto franchise in its entirety will continue to have an even brighter place in the industry. Otaku Dome gives Naruto an 80 out of 100.